Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/185

 CH4P. IV. THE CITY. 179 the rules of historical criticism. All the.?e writers have transmitted to us the tradition of the religious ceremony which marked the foundation of Rome, and we are not prepared to reject so great a number of witnesses. It is not a rare thing for the ancients to relate facts that surprise us; but is this a reason why we should pronounce them fables? above all, if these facts, though not in accord with modern ideas, agree perfectly with those of the ancients ? We have seen in their private life a religion which regulated all their acts; later, we saw that this religion established them in communities: why does it astonish us, after this, that the foundation of a city was a sacred act, and that Romulus himself was obliged to perform rites which were observed everywliere? The first care of the founder was to- choose the site for the new city. But this choice — »■ weighty question, on which they believed the destiny of the people depended — was always left to the decis- ion of the gods. If Romulus had been a Greek, he would have consulted the oracle of Delphi; if a Sam- nite, he would iiave followed the sacred animal — the wolf, or the green woodpecker. Being a Latin, and a neighbor of the Etruscans, initiated into the augurial science,' he asks the gods to reveal their will to him by the flight of birds. The gods point out the Pal- atine. The day for the foundation having arrived, he first oflfers a sacrifice. His companions are ranged around him ; they light a fire of brushwood, and each one leaps through the flame.* The explanation of this rite is^ Cicero, De Divin., I. 17. Plutarch, Camillns, 32. Plin^,. XIV. 2; XVIir. 12.
 * Dionysius, I. 88.